Sea
by x s p i n n e r e t
Summary: Armin Arlert's dream is to leave the trappings of his home and visit the ocean.


It was like leaning into a mirror and staring deep into his own eyes.  
There was no hard, worn leather burdening his feet from being free from feeling the billions of grains of soft, white sedimentary dreams itching between his toes. It was like walking on clouds made of the result of millions of years of erosion, which he had secretly read about in those old, yellowing library books. It was like spreading wings and flying over the wall, the cage that surrounded his home from every sort of monster except the one called captivity.  
It was the old world, the one before the Titans, the one no one remembered any longer. But their old world was Armin's new world, and this expanse of undiscovered, unconditional freedom started at the deep blue stretch of the sea, rippling and sparkling as far as he could see, until it kissed the sky where they met at the blurred line of horizon.

It was unclear, the truth of how he got here, but there was no relevance to this fact in Armin's mind. He could only sense the water, and it seemed to sense him too. It crawled up playfully to his bare feet in the sand, then shied away quickly, only to repeat the process like a bird or a deer in the forests back at home. Armin took a step forward until it began to lap at his toes, reaching out to them with cold, salty fingers, tempting him more. He looked out and could only imagine the abundance of aquatic life the ocean kept hidden, cradled in its murky depths, hidden away from the true harshness of the world. Armin wished he could have had this sort of security within the walls. The vast azure shine of the water could keep him safe from any bully, from any scrutinizing eyes of a critical Wallist...from any Titan.  
He began to walk farther out, his feet swirling up sand and brushing against the soft, spongy skin of stray starfish in the tide pools. Surf sprayed occasionally over him and a salty ocean breeze whispered through his golden hair, reminding him of Mikasa's comforting fingers, or of Eren's breath as he snickered into his ear. He wiggled his toes, feeling the water, accepting it. The sand got squishy beneath them, inviting him to traverse further.  
If they could just see it right now.

The water licked at his knees now, and something screeched overhead. Armin looked up to see a majestic creature he had never seen within the walls of home; a brilliant white bird, its wings glowing like fresh snow in the sun, its feathers tipped with black. It circled overhead, emitting a cry every now and then as it dipped down to land on the water. Armin smiled. It was welcome to do as it pleased. It could play on the ocean and be nothing but alive as it was meant to be. There was nothing holding it back. It was bold, fearless; and free.  
He laughed to himself, his being filled with excitement, as he tipped his head back to enjoy the crashing of waves, the screeching of birds, and his own and final happiness.

"Armin!" Green eyes shone in a pool of rapidly gathering tears as strong hands gripped Eren Jaeger's convulsing frame. These same hands had killed the Titan that killed Armin, there was hot blood burning them, but it wasn't good enough. She was just too late. Mikasa yanked a weeping Eren away from the mangled body of his blond best friend just in time to save his own. She was trying not to drown in her own blurred vision; if Eren wasn't going to be strong, someone had to.  
Still, she could not tear her gaze away from their best childhood friend and comrade as he was crushed under the massive body of a fallen Titan, the same one which had just attempted to devour him. Eren had tried; he had tried so damn hard to get to the Titan before Armin was crushed between its two ungodly fingers, but he wasn't fast enough. Nobody could have been fast enough to save Armin Arlert. Not Levi, not Mikasa. Not himself. Eren could only hope he had died on impact and passed painlessly.

His last prayers for his fallen friend were answered.

Eren remembered listening to Armin talk endlessly for hours on end, late into nights, about seeing the outside world. He talked about strange, preposterous-sounding creatures like elephants, giraffes, and penguins. He talked about how the day would come when finally all the Titans were killed off and they could rebuild humanity somewhere else. He had a lot of favorite places to fantasize about, but it seemed the one he was most fascinated on was the sea.  
Eren knew little about the sea; he didn't quite believe such expanses of water existed, but in a way, he did. He saw them every time he looked into Armin's lively blue eyes. And that gave him hope.

Up until that hope was shattered, along with all of his best friend's bones as he was crushed by the hot body of an avenged Titan.  
Eren cried, stuck in deep sorrow, along with the belief that Armin would never get to live to see the day that he dreamed about day and night, the place that made up the inner workings of his very mind. And he would never again see Armin open his eyes to reveal his own little orbs of the sea, a gift he never acknowledged he had.

However, little did he know, it was the day Eren lost someone important for the second time to the wrath of a hateful, god forsaken creature that Armin Arlert discovered the sea.

... End


End file.
